We have not had any problems with the new meters. Since I track the bill including KWH used and billing days I would notice if the new meters increased our costs. They have not. And nobody in the neighborhood has said anything either.

What has the power company said?

We just switched to a new cell company and just received the first bill. The bill was double what it should have been. Adding up what is on the bill does not even get close to what the total supposedly owed. HOW they came up with their sums is beyond my understanding. And their were things on the bill that were just flat out wrong. One call hopefully fixed the problem..... Key word, hopefully.

Later,
Dan

09-10-2010, 05:58 PM

sweettractors

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

Quote:

Originally Posted by smstonypoint

WOW! How many square feet are you cooling?

Steve

Steve. It is a "Pole top Disconnect" and it runs 1 barn and a shop and a office and a mobile home. Don,t know the Sq footage? Normally runs around $250. Ken Sweet

09-10-2010, 07:27 PM

Redbug

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

Throwing this out there...If these new meters are running "hot" and reading on the high side, why would a company that has shareholders and out to make a profit want to reduce their billing? Those meters may be installed knowingly secretly reading a little high by the engineers. That amounts to millions of free extra dollars each billing cycle into the shareholders pockets.

On the other side...Maybe the old meters were reading low. Money simply lost. But why would a for profit company let that happen for years on end? That does not make sense...I wonder if the two meters can be installed to compare.

Maybe the Public Service Commission needs to have a complaint filed.

09-10-2010, 08:33 PM

charlz

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

We also switched to the new remotely-read meters recently.

Most likely they are using some version of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) which was developed to provide Internet service to customers etc. via the power lines. Essentially the powerlines are also now a communications network.

The new meter, being a small computer, can likely do all kinds of things and logs back to a server on a periodic basis. Beside automatic billing a monitoring system similar to what we use in the network world could be employed to show real time outages. A bunch of meters go 'off the air' and you could pull up the common feed, see where the last good reading is and dispatch someone to start checking lines from there on out.

Faster recovery times, better service and less personnel/trucks to manually read meters. I would imagine the Return on Investment (ROI) looks pretty good... depending on the cost of the meters, roll out etc. of course.

09-10-2010, 09:17 PM

buckeyefarmer

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

My electric bill was $100 higher than normal last month. The two previous months were estimates, so they estimated a little low then.

09-11-2010, 03:46 AM

jinjimbob

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

The power meters around us are wireless from your house to a power pole with a receiver along the street, not sure how it gets back from there, maybe a cell signal.

Since there are no power poles within miles of my house, they drive a van around once every two months with a receiver that they point at all the houses. I can't get the nightly updates online like most people can in my county.

If you look up the model of your power meter online, it will tell you how it communicates.

09-11-2010, 09:52 AM

mjarrels

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

This system, under cap and trade will also allow the Federal government to monitor your thermostate heating/cooling your house. Don't get political.

mark

09-11-2010, 10:18 AM

bullbreaker

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweettractors

My electric company started about 1 1/2 years ago reading my electric meters from their central office. My bills seem to be getting higher. Is this accurate and how do they do that? Ken Sweet

Weve been on that system for at least 5 years now.We also belong to Co-Op electric comp,and got a check sent back to us for a whopping $35 with our electric bill last month. :)

Ken if E-bill keeps getting any higher put a platform on forks on OLD MAUDE and hook up pto powered genny. :laughing:
Just pulling your leg I don't think OLD MAUDE has pto on back does it ?
Boone

09-11-2010, 10:40 AM

Bird

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

Quote:

We also belong to Co-Op electric comp,and got a check sent back to us for a whopping $35 with our electric bill last month.

Until we moved back to town 8 years ago, we also were on an electric co-op and I never got a check back.:laughing: It was a little different system down there. We read out own meters. Your monthly bill wasn't for the last month, it was for the month before that, and you put the new reading on the bill when you sent (or took) it back. They were supposed to have someone come check the meter reading once every 6 months, but one of the guys told me they were lucky if they found time to do it once a year. Now I assume they did periodically check my meters, but in the 8 years we lived there, I never saw them do it.

09-11-2010, 11:03 AM

sweettractors

Re: They read my electric meter from Central Office

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullbreaker

Weve been on that system for at least 5 years now.We also belong to Co-Op electric comp,and got a check sent back to us for a whopping $35 with our electric bill last month. :)

Ken if E-bill keeps getting any higher put a platform on forks on OLD MAUDE and hook up pto powered genny. :laughing:
Just pulling your leg I don't think OLD MAUDE has pto on back does it ?
Boone

You know Boone, to be honest, I really have not looked at her behind to see if there is anything sticking out :) Old Maude might not appreciate that :D Ken Sweet